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Topic: [MechWarrior 5]: After the Republic (Read 34523 times)

"Good idea but that is almost exactly what the defenders tried and look how that turned out, I like the idea of a trial but we should draw them out, history has shown the longer clanners fight the worse off they are. The Hovercraft forces in the Golden Talon compose mostly of a mix of Harrassers which use mostly missles, Condors that use autocannons, and a mix of other stuff. If their heavy on ammunition then a drawn out battle can go bad for them, Eaton has alot of raw resources but not alot of ready made material or ammo for the Clanners to use. We set up this Trial but after the first contact we cna brake off and run to these cannons. Their heavy in iron ore which will mess up long range sensors and force the Falcons to brake up. We keep braking them up and then we crush them one by one in small ambushs in the canyons. The Falcons have to reinforcements to call their jumpship isn't there and the Eaton HPG is down."

The network of canyons, gullies, and gorges that the Eaton Militia had retreated back into was a complete maze even with an intensive map. A few local prospectors worked most of the aeras they helped the milita remanent find the perfect hidden base.

Roughly two hundred feet deep and about four hundred back into a narrow gorge wall was an old mine entrance to a network of old ore mines that branched off for hundreds of feet. The overhand provided good cover for the mechs and tanks and the tunnels allowed for safe storage of supplies, ammo, and quiet sleeping places for the troops.

Allan had been out on patrol only twice since the first battle, once the night the dropships in orbit and once yesterday. The dropships were Lyran dropships and had appeared in the sky last week but no one had seen any Lyran personel or machines since. Everyday the Clanners were probing into the canyon maze but without local help it'd take weeks to find their base, or at least that was what Lt. Voller and the prospector Barnie had said. Allan didn't trust the prospector but Lt. Voller had proven himself in combat and he was obligated to follow Xavier Voller's orders.

"Hey Allan."

Speak of the devil, Allan thought.

Allan gave Lt. Voller a salute who returned it half-heartedly, "Listen theres been some odd seismic activity to the north. The Jad Falcons have always made their probes from the south so far I want you and Sergent Paten to take your mechs and check it out, Paten is already waiting for you at the lip of the base.

Allan nodded, and shucked his jumpsuit he was already wearing a pair shorts that clung tigher than any of the skimpy skirts he had seen his girlfriend wear. His Grant Titan, Magus, stood no more than twenty feet away. Allan did a quick sprint over and scampered up the dangling chain ladder that lead twelve meters up to his cockpit. He got and snaked into his cooling vest and rested the heavy neurohelmet on his head that tranferred his own sense of balance to the mech's gyroscope. Allan activated the mech from standby shutdown, which just had the reactor on standby instead of full shutdown but still locked out weapons and movement. Battlemech's were expensive pieces of machinery and each had extensive anti theft security systems, a voice recognition device and a password check that only the Mech Warrior knew.

"Allan Reiling, Eaton Militia." Allan voiced calmy as the computer checked his voice pattern against the one is had on pattern.

"Voice analysis complete, enter password."

"The Once and Future King." Allan quoted a millenia old Terran legend. He ran the mech through the usual routine then proceeded with Paten out on patrol.

"That wouldnt be a bad plan except for one fact," Peter said, "All of mechs are assaults, that means slow. Its hard to play cat and mouse with hovercraft when they can move on average 3 times as fast as we can. We have the advantage of armor, but that isnt much comfort when we are trying to play the clanners out into a battle of attrition."

"To win this battle, we have to control the terrain, we have to make the clanners come to us, and face us on our terms. If we try that plan, we might as well blow the mechs in the hold now. They still have a moderate advantage and range with their weapons."

By bidding, we know that the clanners wont contest our landing zone, or they have held that rule so far." McLaren said.

"We give the clanners just what they want, a seeming massive victory over us poor stupid spheroids." Peter said with a grin. "We put up most of our machines, and say half of the cavaliers, make a good show of it. But when we get in hot and heavy, we hit the panic button, let our formation fall apart and fall back. Retreat in the face of the superior clan warriors."

"If we can get in contact with the garrison, we can organize a second wave, an ambush with our hovertanks, a few mechs and the rest of the cavaliers. The clanners go balls to the wall to get their kills and score some respect from their betters. Then, maybe here at the Macho Grande basin," Peter said, sitting his bottle of beer in the middle of map, "We regroup fast, the clanners run headlong into our guns, and the hovertanks and cavaliers come down on them like a whirlwind. Its close quarters, so they loose the range advantage, plus if we can get into physical combat, we generally carry more armor, and they dont engage in close in."

"Break them hard, break them fast. Maybe we can even get some field guns set up with the garrison, some suppressing fire at that point could be a deciding factor." Peter said.

"Its a sound a plan as I've ever heard, now I feel like cleaning up a bite and having something to eat, dismissed." Grey stood and left the lounge back to her quarters. The dropship lifted soon after and left for a two day trip to the meet the jumpship.

The Lyran fleet reverted from the mind boggling alter universe caused by ripping open the universe and flinging yourself and seven hundred thousand tons of metal starship over thirty light years. The Adam Steiner came out at a pirate jump point in the Coventry system, it's Captain immediately demanded an update.

The sensor operator almost called all clear but the response caught in his throat. A blip appeared on his screen, a blip that was immediately tagged, 1.6 kilometers long and massed more than a million tons. Only one type of ship currently deployed by any major power in the universe it could be, "Sir, one Warship on screen, a Leviathan class battleship. The Clanners one and only Clan bread battle ship that mounted an extensive array of weaponary including four naval class heavy gauss rifles.

Captain Von Lifer ordered the main drives to flank speed and power to the weapons, Von Lifer knew knew they were dead but with the lithium charge used to get here there was no choice but to fight the rest of the fleet had jumped at the Zenith point to catch any Clan Jumpships unaware. The Adam Steiner had jumped to the pirate point to take out a Nightlord -Class Warship.

Intel had malfed up again it looked like, "Open missle ports all weapons fire as you bear. Deploy AR-10s as soon as we are in range."

The order echoed across the bridge and the ship shuddered slighty as the massive Warship Killer missles rocketed away at the Levianthan, "ID on the Leviathan?"

"It's the Bloody Talon, captained by Star Commodore Kurt-"

"-Power bloom! She's firing!"

Four bluish discharges of energy bloomed as Nickleferrous slugs the size of medium tanks screamed in at the Adam Steiner two missed port while the other two devastated the port side AR-10 tubes. The Adam Steiner shuttered horribly..

Star Commodore Kurt bellowed in range as two of his heavy gauss slugs missed, "Whelp that salvo could have broken the surat's back! Aim better or suffer my wrath!" The Star Commodore gripped his seat hard as multiple AR-10s caused minor tremors along the glory of the Jade Falcon Clan, the Bloody Talon was the personal WarShip of Khan Jana Pryde, Kurt would not fail here not when crew moral was so strong.

"All weapons fire as you bear, Gauss Control track that Avalon's spine and brake it."

The ship shuttered as a massive amount of energy discharged, Naval grade lasers and PPCs lit space up with immense blasts of lighting and intensified light. Naval class auto cannons barked let loose an unholly swath. But the real glory was when the four huge turrents on the Bloody Talon delivered their unholy packages. Several tons of Nickleferrous metal snapped through space at hypersonic speeds.

The Lasers dug nasty molten trenches, PPCs exploded away armor in a blast of heat and ionized energy, autocannon shells as big as small cars detonated against the Adam Steiner's armor opening it to space. Three of the four guass slugs found their targets, one corkscrewed off into space while the other three pinncles of metal bit deep into the Adam's midsection. There was a moment's pause then as the giant ship tried to turn it's main drives broke free of the rest of the catameran. the lights flashed out then a brilliant white explosion of the Adam's main reactors detonating shined brighter than the stars for a few seconds before the supernova burned itself out. Out that distrution streaked an Assault-class dropship running in low power mode. Undetectable by the large Warships sensors no one saw it until it was tolate. It smashed into the main drives of the Bloody Talon sending rolling thunder through the ship. The drives glowed then died, not safe but unmobile the Bloody Talon laid stuck. And the path to Coventry laid open to the remaining Lyran forces.

The patrol was quiet, radio chatter, stories, and back and forth jokes that were common among ragtag units like militias was absent. Paten was still clamed up about the death Czech, and Allan was too jumpy to want to speak. He knew the Clanners wanted only one more thing out this planet or they would have left already his blood. He had a sick feeling that they were working to that goal in more than one way.

Before his thougts could trail further down that road noticed tracks in the intersecting canyon, it lead west. West was where the Reiling Ranch was. "Red 2 here, Home, I have multiple tracks lerading west can't discern much."

"Roger." Paten's hollow voice said. She turned her Falconer down the west path and took point. The trail lead for a couple of kilometers before following a logging trail out of the canyons. As Allan's Grand Titan neared the top he noticed smoke rising on the horizon, his heart flipped it seemed, "No.." he muttered.

"Allan, wait it could be too dangerous.."Paten tried to say as Allan brushed past her. She didn't try to keep up as Allan ran the Grand Titan at 70 plus kilometers per hour. She watched it as he shut it down at the edge of the Ranch entrance and stumbled out of the mech and into the ranch. She walked her mech over and kept watch from a distance.

"Grandfather! Mom!" Allan shouted, any shreds of caution forgoten. The house was burned out ans still smoldering and the old mech hagnar was collapsed. Then he saw them six charred corpses laid in a row, not even buried. Some one had hosed them with a flamer. Allan struggled to not scream with anguish. At Paten looked on he spent most of the day digging graves and using pieces of the ruined mechbay as headstones.

When the work was done he stood over the graves head bowed in prayer, Paten worked over and stood at his side.

"I wasn't there. I wasn't there when you needed me Mom, rest with Dad now. Grandfather I won't let this tarnish the memories of you, I know what you would want me to do." Allan fell silent and prayed for his little brothers and sisters, Paten rubbed his shoulder. Allan shrugged her off and walked over to the burnt out house and dug through the ruble. He came out with one thing, it was a tattered flag burnt around the edges but the crest was still visible. Allan folded it up and put in the pocket of his coolingvest. "It's time to go."

The two walked back to their mechs with utterting a word, Paten wasn't sure what to say and Allan was being the anti-social one. But she noticed the insignia of the flag was that of a black eage with it wings spread and head turned right emblazoned over a teal shield. She didn't recognize until they back at the base that it had belonged to House Marik.

Grey felt her stomach roil as the ships returned to real space. The process of ripping a hole in reality and hurtling yourself and several hundred thousand tons of Jump and Drop ship with you developed a certain sickness with some people. Called jump sickness it occured in less than 2% of the passengers. Grey unfortunately suffered from the rare disease, doctors had no idea what caused, blood pressure, physical fitness, or mental stability all seemed to have no effect on who had it. Maybe it was the universes way of getting back at us for ripping holes in it Grey though bitterly. She popped the perscription pain relief and went to sleep on her small bed.

At least being a Kommandant she got a bed instead of a cot she though to herself as she curled up in the warm blankets.

"Welcome to Eaton." Langustine said, saluting the distant ball of the planet with his beer. It was a unit tradition to get smashingly drunk as often as possible, and there was alot of possible onboard a dropship. Each day was the same, early morning drills followed by morning drinks, lunchtime drill followed by lunchtime drinks, and evening simulator training followed by evening drinks.

Most people just thought they were a bunch of drunks who were given mechs for some ungodly reason, behaving more like the desperate crews of Urbanmechs rather than the proud assualt mech pilots they were. It would be funny to se if any of those nay-sayers could keep a mech on its feet when they were drunk. Each of his men could, and still operate the weapon systems. Sure they stubbed toes, and walked through the corners of buildings on occassion, but it was a small price to pay for a sane group of mechwarriors.

"I was going over some of the stuff on the old invasion, Peter," McLaren said, tipping back a cold one.

"Did you find something interesting?" Peter asked.

"Of course, otherwise I wouldnt have said anything. Back then the clanners carried their power armor, toads, into battle on their mechs." he said.

"Like one in each hand?"

"No, they had handholds welded to the mech, three spots on the torso, and one on each leg. Its only about 5 extra tons on the machine, and it is pretty well spread out."

"I was thinking we could fabricate these handholds, weld them to our mechs and haul the cavs with us, They wouldnt show up on sensor sweeps since they will be hanging off of us, and they might even mess up the clanners long range ID programs."

"That is an interesting idea, I'd like to see it done. Need any help?" Peter asked.

"If you are offering to pick of a welding torch, then I would love the help, but if you want to supervise...well I already have two of those, the lead tech and the load commander of the ship. I dont need a third one."

The dropship began to vibrate as it reversed orientation, and fired the engines to reduce its speed for entry into the upper atmosphere of Eaton. The vibration increased to a roar as air ripped past the hull of the ship, heating it until some portions took on the cherry red glow of superheated ceramic plate. After several harrowing minutes, the roar subsided, and the ship was under its on power again, plummeting towards the drop zone. Surface scans showed the clanners a good distance from the LZ, the dropship would have time to land, disembark its mechs and their supplies and lift off again before clan forces could assault it.

"Dammit." Langustine said as the bay door slammed open letting in the setting rays of Eatons sun. "Nearly 150 miles off of my projected target because the dropship commander has a tight ass." he grimaced as he walked his Cyclops down the ramp onto the soil of Eaton.

"Well, we'll get the scenic tour then." Voss said, nursing a hangover. His Marauder II turned, scanning the distant horizon with its advanced scanners and sensors.

"Nice." McLaren said, his Zeus creaking down the ramp. "Fixing to be nighttime."

Kommandant Grey followed with her WarDog and lance of mechs, the Cavaliers were mounted on three Joust support tanks, "Ok people were about 150 miles off target, we haven't had any luck raising the 3rd Battalion of the Lyran Guards so we're heading to the canyons to try to track down whats left of the militia. Keep sensors on active, and maintain staggered formation no sense letting the Clanners get the drop on us. They're probaly around here some where.

***

Lt. Voller watched as the dropshio came down from his Blackjack-E, two whole assault lances disembarked with a token force of armored infantry and tanks, he switched over to the lance frequency, "Ok MinuteMen power up lets welcome them to Eaton, looks like their friendly." He switched back to general frequency. "This is the Eaton Militia please state who you are and please be working for the Archon?" He sounded weary and stressed out. As he said that the Falconer, Grand Titan, and Blackjack-E all powered up.

***

"Contact," The Battlemaster pilot called out as Lt. Voller's message played across the airwaves. "I have eight contacts mamn. Three of the milita, and five Clanners closing on our position. Looks like an Exterminator, Masakari, Shrike, Mad Cat Mk II, and a Vulture."

"Copy, listen up everyone we got three friendlies out there and five Clanners that probaly tracked them here, prepare to engage."

"I read them," Peter said tapping his commlink. Five clanners, and some heavy hardware between them. His main concerns were the Mad Cat II, and the Masakari. He had seen old Holos of the damage that the masakaris had done to the old Combine during the clan invasion. This would have to be a decisive battle to show the locals, as well as the clanners that they werent some yokels in powered trashcans.

"Assault lance, Brubaker formation!, Grey, have your mechs come up on my flank and form up." Peter said as his lance responded with practiced skill. The massive machines formed an arrowhead with Voss's massive Marauder II at the point. The Battlemaster and Zeus flanked Voss to the right side while Langustine marshalled his Cyclops into the left flank. Brubaker, an assualt battalion commander had pioneered the formation to take advantage of the massive weight and firepower of the assault mech, while limiting the flaws of its low speed.

"I want the MadCatII the prime target, hit that &^%$@ hot and heavy as soon as she moves into range." he said, pumping the gauss rifle trigger, loading a heavy ferro-nickle slug into the chamber of the massive weapon. His IR scanner detected the power spikes and heat signatures of particle cannons being heated up, ready to fire. "The Masakari is beta target, the Shrike gamma target."

"Joust, Lancer Alpha formation, Vulture" He said, closing the channel between the armor unit and himself. The hovertanks would seem to dash away, but would alter course rapidly to effect a flanking attack with their high speed and agility. Hopefully, the Vulture pilot would be too busy getting into mech combat to notice the trio of lowly armored vehicles.

Grey oreder her men to form up with Peter's Commands, she targeted the Masakari and unleased her Grizzard Gauss Rifle, the slug missed wide, as the Clanner brought his focus to her. He unleashed both his extended tange large pulse lasers, packets of green energy melted armor of Grey's left arm and torso. She responded with a blast of her own large pulse laser that ate into the Clanners right arm.

The Exterminator, Shrike, and MadCat II took to the air on jump jets, bringing their weapons in to range. LRMs peppered the line of Inner Sphere mechs, the Mad Cat II sent to gaus rifles into the Atlas causing it to sumble from the massive loss of armor on it's right arm. The Vulture unleashed two scores of LRMs from it's possition at the Battlemaster, the missles staggered the mechs dealing damage all over the shoulders and cockpit of the Battlemaster.

Three mechs came down frm a slope on the clanners flank and engaged them.

"Lock and load!" Voss howled as he ignited both of his PPCs followed by the incandescent blasts from the wounded Battlemaster. Hanlons shots went wide, ripping furrows through the earth as he was still shaken by the head hits from the Vultures LRM salvo. Voss's PPC blasts were more telling, a solid hit against the MadCatII's left leg, and left torso.

Ignoring command, McLaren unloaded his Zeus's full weapons compliment against the offending Vulture, hammering it with LRMs, A gauss slug, and the ear-searing blast of emerald light from his large laser. Armor boiled off of the heavy omnimech and the machine staggered under the massive onslaught of firepower.

"Dammit, Prime Target!" Peter yelled, lining up the MadCatII with his own Gauss rifle. He felt a slow moment of only his own breathing as the target lock blinked red for positive. Not good enough dammit, it would be a torso hit, not good enough, not good enough. The machine was thrown out of step as Voss's PPCs found their mark. He let the reticle drift until the linkage between the leg and the torso floated above his sights. In the old Holovids the older Mad Cat, smaller than the Mk. II could be taken down by hitting the leg joint there. He pulled the trigger hoping that his luck hadnt come up, and his unit would leave the field without loosing a mech, or more importantly, a mechwarrior.

The gauss slug skipped in and jammed itself in the hip joint of the leg, the hip acutautor locked in place, wisely the clan pilot dropped his throttle to zero. He had lost mobility, a kee function of the Mad Cat series, even the MK II only had armor common to most Inner Sphere heavies. It staggered even more as a score of LRMs and a ERPPC blast scouraged the machine's rear armor. It gave a mighty groan and fell forward revealing Allan's Grand Titan standing three hundred meters behind it.

Allan closed to SRM range and unloaded on the Shrike, 16 high explosive warheads exploded armor off the Shrike's back. The ninety-five ton machine leared forward and brought up both it's UAC-10 autocannons unleashing two hellish streams against the Grand Titan.

Allan crouch and took the damage from one stream over his left breast but the other missed left. He returned fire with both ERPPCs that slagged armor off the Shrike's center line as burned two ruby beams back at Allan. Medium lasers bit back at the shrike two knives cut furrows of the right arm and pulse of energy boiled armor off the centerline. Allan let go with another Streak SRM slavo that homed in on the centerline and pulverized the armor there. The Shrike bent over like a fighter that took a blow to the stomach, black smoke poured through holes in the armor. As Allan's sights went from oranged to green signaling his ERPPCs were recharged, he unleashed to streams of lightining into the mech. One danced sparks over the right arm and cooked off the autocannon ammo loaded in the barrels, it's right arm blew away. The other gutted the center torso and the Shrike exploded in a fearsome golden globe of energy as it's reactor cooked off.

There was a tremor as the Battlemaster fell to the ground, the plasteel canopy shattering under the force of the impact. Smoke billowed from the machine. McLaren quickly moved his Zeus into a covering position, laying down another hail of heavy fire into the Vulture. LRMS smashed into his machine, sending vibrations through the massive body, but the machien stayed upright.

The Vulture's torso detonated in a tremendous flash that sent the attached arm spiraling away like a leaf in the wind. The air was filled with the tell-tale whine of gauss slugs as the three hovertanks reached firing position. The pilot ejected from the machine as it toppled to its side wreathed in flames.

Peter shouted incoherently, blasting away with his gauss at any of the clan mechs still standing, his unit having broken the Brubaker formation to close with the clanners. With support, the Masakari is a terrifying machine, but alone it is not such a dark foe. Heat shimmered off of the machine as its heat sinks tried to keep it within operating temperatures. Voss sidestepped a volley of lightning bolts and lasers, responding with a blast from his LBX autocannon. The weapon did little damage to the massive machine, but it drew its attention.

The Cavalier troopers charged the machine, satchel charges ready. Several scaled the legs as the monster turned, and fired again, shattering armor plate off of the Marauder II, and destroying the autocannon. Voss cursed, and discharged the PPCs, one ripped a furrow of molten steel in the side of the machine, the other going wide. One of the cavalier troopers hooked a claw in the still glowing steel plate, and swung his satchel charge into the interior of the clan mech.

The trooper bailed off as the charge detonated, releasing a cloud of superheated gas. The machine shuddered as the coolant system was compromised. Within a few seconds, the heat shimmer from the mech grew more increased, and Voss had to stiffle a laugh as the massive Masakari came to a dead stop, the reactor shut-down sequence initiated by excessive heat.

The Masakari stumbled about before another trooper clambered up and launched a rocket propelled satchel charge into the mech's hip. The leg blew off at the femur and the Masakari balanced for a second hopping madly then fell face forward. Armor and metal screamed as it smashed into the rocky desert floor.

Another set of power ups came on at the edge of Aldan's radar, another Falcon mech star with a sorty of hovercraft including Harrassers and SM1 Tank Destroyers, and Elemetnals. Three Javeline LRM Launchers captured from militia storage rolled into LRM range to. From nearly a kilometer away they lanched scores of missles. That scattered the Cavalier infantry and pockmarked the battlefield, but lacked experiance.

"Careful more Clanner's coming in, looks like the rest of their mechs. I count a medium star plus four heavy class mechs moving. Look like a star of two Novas and three Black Lanners. The havy mix is a Cauldron-Born, Mad Cat, Loki, and Thor. Watch yourself." Aldan spiraled off two ERPPCs at one of the LRM launchers which went up in a brillant explosion of fire.